


Waiting For You

by Gameofthe100



Category: The 100 (TV), The 100 Series - Kass Morgan, TiMER (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - TiMER Fusion, Bellarke, Clarke Griffin & Raven Reyes are Best Friends, Clarke Griffin & Raven Reyes are Roommates, F/M, Fluff, Humour, Minor Jasper Jordan/Maya Vie, Minor Monty Green/Harper McIntyre, Minor Octavia Blake/Lincoln, Modern AU, Past Relationship Clexa, Past Relationship Flarke, Romance, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, artist!Clarke, writer!bellamy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-08-15 13:03:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8057455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gameofthe100/pseuds/Gameofthe100
Summary: So I decided to write a shorter fic just for the hell of it. This is based on TiMER, whose premise I adore so I had to write my favourite ship into it... The title sucks, I know, but I couldn't think of a better one... Anyway, this fic will be one of two or three parts, I'm not so sure just yet. I hope you enjoy it





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to write a shorter fic just for the hell of it. This is based on TiMER, whose premise I adore so I had to write my favourite ship into it... The title sucks, I know, but I couldn't think of a better one... Anyway, this fic will be one of two or three parts, I'm not so sure just yet. I hope you enjoy it

Clarke looked at the flashing lines on the Timer that was lodged into her arm. 

“Will this hurt?” Finn asked. 

The woman was priming the Timer that would be put into his right wrist.

“It’s like getting your ears pierced,” Clarke replied, avoiding his eyes, wanting to avoid watching the man that she had been dating for the past month with far more hope than she wanted to let on. This had to be it. Scratch that, Clarke thought, tucking her hair behind her ear. This was it, she could feel it. Finn was perfect. Idealistic to offset her rather melancholic demeanour, funny, smart and handsome, he was everything her soulmate should be. Everything she wanted her soulmate to be. 

Clarke continued to stare at the flashing lines on her Timer that were in the place of the numbers that should be the countdown until she met The One. The Timer Corporation had started selling the small Timers about five years ago. The small piece of metal would tell you when you met your other half, your soulmate, the one who you were destined to be with. The science was complicated, and to be honest, Clarke hadn’t really bothered to try and understand it, but she had the Timer implanted almost as soon as it had come onto the market. She had been greeted with lines instead of numbers, something that the woman who had implanted her Timer had clicked her tongue sympathetically at. 

“Your Soulmate doesn’t have one,” she had explained, before leaving the room. Clarke had left soon after. She had spent the last five years bringing in any one she dated without the Timer to get it implanted. Not one had Timed Out. Not one was her soulmate. 

Lexa had sniffed when her Timer was implanted, the numbers saying that her she would meet her Soulmate in just over a week. She had gently squeezed Clarke’s hand and, with a sympathetic smile from the technician; she glanced at the Timer again. 

“It’s stupid,” she had said, “Who cares what the Timer says? We can be happy together. The science is bullshit anyway. What they have, like, a ninety-eight percent success rate?” she had laughed in the dismissive way that only Lexa could do. “Fuck it, Clarke. We will be the other two percent.”

Clarke had smiled, still disappointed. She liked Lexa, she did, but she wasn’t the one promised by contracts and pamphlets. 

Lexa had met Costia exactly when her Timer said she would. Clarke hadn’t been there, something that she was relieved at. Would she have wanted to see the woman Lexa left her for? Their faces as they both Timed Out just as they bumped into each other in the coffee shop that had actually been Clarke’s favourite? 

She hadn’t hated Lexa, or the others that had come before her. She had simply been disappointed, in a hollow kind of way. But this was it, Finn had to be it. Her mom loved him, Kane loved him, her friends loved him, and Clarke knew that it would be very easy for her to love him too. But she didn’t want to get her hopes up. 

“Alright,” the technician said, “Eye contact please, you’ll want to be looking at your man when you Time Out together.” She smiled, “This is the best part of my job,” she said, almost to herself. 

“Ready?” Clarke asked hesitantly, looking at Finn’s wide brown eyes. He nodded, quick and pale, his eyes shot to his arm. “Ready,” 

Clarke squeezed his hand and the technician implanted the Timer in a quick movement. 

Finn winced in pain, but then the numbers appeared on his forearm, clear as day. Clarke’s did not. 

“Nine hundred and fifty three days…” he said, slowly and disbelieving. He gently slipped his hand out of Clarke’s and the technician shuffled before leaving, muttering a quiet “awkward” as she closed the door. 

Clarke didn’t know what to say. Finn obviously didn’t either. He looked at the Timer and then he finally looked at Clarke.

“I’m sorry,” was all he said, before he too got up. “I don’t think…” he trailed off. 

“It’s okay,” Clarke said, staring at the floor. “See you,” 

Finn nodded, glanced at his Timer with a sort of incredulous awe and he walked out the room. Clarke left soon after. 

The drive home was quiet. The walk up to the apartment she shared with Raven was quiet too. She unlocked the door and was greeted by a grinning Raven, whose smile melted when she saw Clarke’s face. 

“Fuck,” she sighed, “Another one?”

Clarke nodded, feeling the same hollow disappointment she had come to so easily recognise. 

“Hey, if it helps, as much as I liked him, I didn’t think he was the one for you,” 

Raven moved to the fridge in the corner of the room and pulled out two bottles of beer. She passed one to Clarke without speaking and she pulled her onto the couch. 

“Next one maybe,” she said.

“Can we talk about something else? Anything else? Anything at all,”

Raven frowned, “Come on, we have like three more packs of beer in the fridge, tequila in the cupboard and we even have some ice cream, which never happens,”

Clarke just sullenly looked at the wall. “Aren’t you going out tonight? With that guy who’s Timing Out tomorrow?”

Raven shrugged, “Yeah, well I can always cancel. There are so many more where he came from,” she grinned. 

Raven’s Timer was counting down to when she was forty three, an age that Raven did not particularly want to wait until to finally meet someone she would spend the rest of her life with. Her solution: go out with guys whose Timers were just about to expire and who were not quite ready to commit to just one person. Raven was perfectly happy with this arrangement, something that Clarke, with her romantic conventionality and absolute belief in the system, did not quite understand. 

“Look, Clarke,” Raven huffed, “Maybe you should just let it go? These things are just pieces of metal really, and speaking as a mechanic, there is actually very little credible science behind all of this. It’s just a bunch of stuff that really depends on chance. Why do you think they have you sign so many contracts when you get it implanted? So that you can’t sue the shit out of them if the person you Time Out with is a total asshole or a psychopath or something. Just…” she shrugged, “Date someone and don’t take them to get the Timer implanted. Better yet, get yours removed. Stop letting that shitty glorified computer chip, control your love life.”

Clarke nodded and forced a smile, before grimacing, “You know what, you’re actually right, I don’t want to think about this Timer thing anymore. Let’s go out, let’s go somewhere fun, somewhere where I can completely think about something else!”  
“Yes, that’s my girl,” Raven yelled, grabbing Clarke into a rough embrace before racing off. “Wear something slutty! I know I am!” Clarke laughed in spite of herself and she pressed herself off the couch, hopeful for a night of careless oblivion. 

XXX

As per usual, the idea of going out was far more exciting than the actual event. Clarke could vaguely see, through flashing lights, Raven drunkenly grinding against some guy. There were too many people, the music, which was bad to begin with, was far too loud and Clarke laughed absently at herself as the thought hit her: she was basically an old woman. At least the bartender kept passing her refills when she finished gingerly sipping at each margarita he passed her way. She yawned, and looked down the bar. She really was pathetic, curled over the glass, and eyes shifting to her friend who was making the most of the night out. 

“You look as if you are having the best time; you’re like a walking advert for the bar, have they hired you or something to bring in more customers?” a chuckling, gravelly voice said behind her. 

“Look here, asshole,” she said, swiveling her chair to face the man, “I don’t feel like being-”

She stopped. 

Even through her slight dizziness from the multiple margaritas and the flashing lights, she could tell that the man who had spoken to her was attractive. He had curly, unruly hair and dark eyes. He was tall, wearing a white t-shirt, with his hands carelessly in his pockets. He smirked at Clarke and leaned against the bar next to her, as Clarke swiveled back.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” he chuckled, his voice straining against the music, “Obviously, you’re very busy, but from across the bar you did look a little lonely.”

“I don’t want to be hit on, even if it is entertaining to see you try. Does this asshole routine work often?” she said, feigning shock. The man simply laughed and stuck out his hand. 

“I’m Bellamy, and you are?”

“Clarke,” she said, through narrowed eyes, but she shook his hand anyway. 

“I hate to break it to you, but I wasn’t hitting on you. Don’t get me wrong, you’re attractive, and if you didn’t have the whole depressive alcoholic thing going on, you would probably have more than just me trying to talk to you,”

Clarke scoffed, “Then why are you talking to me?”

“Would you believe me if I said that you were sitting on my jacket?” Bellamy chuckled. 

Clarke blushed, seeing that she was indeed sitting on a jacket. 

“Oh no!” she said, mortified but laughing slightly, “I’m so sorry,” she moved off the stool and Bellamy pulled his jacket off the chair and over his arm. 

“I’ve been sitting here for ages, why didn’t you say something earlier?” she said, eyes wide and cheeks heating up. 

“Truthfully, I thought that you would join your friend, he looked at Raven, “I thought that I could just come and get it discretely, but now we’re leaving and I couldn’t leave it for much longer,” he grinned, gesturing to a very pretty girl who was  
standing by the door. 

“Oh, your girlfriend…” Clarke stopped when Bellamy started laughing. 

“Err, no. That’s my sister,” he turned to look at the girl, who gestured for Bellamy to come. 

“I better go, thanks Clarke. This conversation made my evening,” he winked and Clarke couldn’t tell if that was sarcasm too. He turned to leave before pausing. 

“Listen,” he began, turning back around. “You seem… I mean…” he sighed and he ran his hands though his hair, “Can I have your number? We can continue talking about my poor pick up methods over coffee or something?”  
His attitude shift from cocky to awkward made Clarke laugh and she nodded. She passed him her phone and he passed her his. She put her number into his phone and he handed her phone back.

“Okay, I will text you or call you or whatever,” 

“Perfect,” Clarke smiled.

Raven came almost as soon as Bellamy had left and she yelled, “YES!”

She danced jerkily while hugging Clarke, “He’s perfect!” she yelled into Clarke’s ear, “He’s so nice looking… yummy… I saw you totally flirting with the hot guy!”

“We weren’t-” Clarke protested but Raven had pried herself off of Clarke and was now dancing again, ignoring Clarke’s objections.

“I think it’s time to go home,” Clarke said, looking at Raven who now sulkily looked at Clarke, but allowed for her to steer her out of the building.

“You had fun, yes?” Raven mumbled. 

“Tons,” Clarke said, thinking of brown eyes and dark curls. 

XXX

Clarke woke up the next morning, feeling a little less depressed than she thought she would. She thought that she should perhaps be a little more upset about the Finn thing. It wasn’t that she wasn’t disappointed, but the morning brought the realisation that she wasn’t disappointed that Finn wasn’t her soulmate; she was simply disappointed that she still had to wait. She yawned and stretched, reaching for her phone where several messages were listed on the screen. 

The first was from her mother. It read: “Hi Clarke, hope everything your side is well. How did the implantation do with Finn? I always thought-” 

Clarke sighed at the message and scrolled to see if there were any messages worth opening and result in her guiltily replying to all of them. 

The name popped up and Clarke couldn’t help but smile. The message from Bellamy was short but Clarke swiped and replied, feeling all thoughts about failed soulmates leave her head. 

XXX

That Saturday, Bellamy was waiting in the coffee shop, wearing glasses and reading a book. Clarke smiled when she saw him. He was much more attractive without the flashing strobe lights and Clarke took a deep breath before she walked into the coffee shop. He looked up as the door opened and he smiled an uneven smile and stood up. 

“Clarke, great to see you less intoxicated,”

“Shut up,” she said, slumping into seat. 

“What, no ‘great to see you, too, Bellamy’?”

“I’m not yet convinced that it is,”

“Understandable,” 

She shook her head and laughed, “It is great to see you too, Bellamy.” She said, rehearsed and playful. Bellamy rolled his eyes. 

“You just having coffee?” he asked. Clarke nodded and he got up to order. He brought back two giant mugs and Clarke sipped gratefully.

“So Clarke,” Bellamy asked, “What do you do?”

“Careful,” she warned, “Don’t get too personal. We’ve basically just met, and you should be careful. You don’t know if you want to be my friend yet,” 

“Too true,” Bellamy paused, as if considering Clarke’s point. “Eh, I think I’ll risk it.”

Clarke chuckled and answered, “I’m an illustrator. I mainly do children books but I also paint artwork that gets exhibited in the gallery a few blocks from my apartment.”

 

“Anything that I might know? The books I mean,”

“Read a lot of children’s books do you?”

“Always, I can’t stand books with big words,”

“I got that feeling when I met you,”

Bellamy laughed, a loud laugh that brought a few stares from the patrons around them.

“I did quite a bit of work on a series by Leslie McGrath a few years ago. They sold really well actually. They were the series about a kid who made friends with his stuffed giraffe and they travelled the world together. It was great to experiment with different art mediums. I did a lot of watercolours for them, but Leslie wanted sort of elements from traditional art work depending on which country they were visiting. I loved trying out the different techniques and trying to still make the pieces appropriate for a children’s book. Melding the two-” she paused.

Bellamy nodded, as if to ask her to continue but Clarke just grinned sheepishly, “This is why you shouldn’t ask me about what I do. I go into far too much detail.”

“No, not at all, it’s really interesting. It’s great when people love what they do.”

“What about you? What do you do?”

“I’m actually a writer,”

“Anything I might know?” she said, mirroring his question.

“The ones I’ve written haven’t been incredibly popular. They tend to be mostly speculative fiction, they do well enough I suppose. I teach a creative writing course as well at Ark University in a temp position but it helps,”

“What are they called? The books? I’m sure I’ve heard of them. At least I’m sure that I’m more likely to recognise them if you actually tell me what they’re called.”

“Well, I wrote the ‘Ninth Charter’ series, and then a few other novels. The one that was most popular was ‘Evenings in Lithuania’.”

Clarke shook her head, “I haven’t heard of them sorry.”

Bellamy laughed, “You and most of the world,”

The conversation continued, Clarke telling Bellamy about her catastrophic partnership with the author Arthur West who had wanted to make his novel, which had been set in medieval times, full of intricate calligraphy, which had resulted in several phone calls from the publishers and many angry emails from the author himself. 

“So obviously, it never got published,” she finished and Bellamy laughed, loudly again. They refilled their coffees and the conversation continued. Bellamy told Clarke about his sister, Octavia who was marrying her soulmate in three months’ time.  
Clarke paused after Bellamy mentioned soulmates and Bellamy did too. 

“Do you have one?” Clarke found herself asking, before her brain had anytime to register the words. 

“One what?”

“A Timer?”

Bellamy shook his head, “No, I don’t want one.”

“Why not?” Clarke asked, cursing at how callous it sounded. 

“I already found my soulmate and she died. Getting one would cheapen what we had.” He stopped and looked at Clarke with a sad look.

“I’m sorry. What happened?”

“Her name was Gina. We were engaged until about six years ago. She was stabbed in a robbery gone wrong one night when she was walking home. She bled out before someone found her and called the ambulance.”

Clarke didn’t know how to respond so she didn’t. 

“Anyway, the Timers came out shortly after that and it was a stupid thought to get one and to find someone else,”

“Totally,” Clarke said, half-heartedly and quiet. 

“Fuck,” Bellamy muttered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be a total downer,” he grinned again and Clarke smiled back. 

They didn’t talk about Timers after that, but the conversation did continue. A while after, Clarke looked at the clock on the wall and apologised to Bellamy. 

“I’m meant to meet Raven in half an hour,”

Bellamy looked at the clock too and his eyes widened, “We’ve been here for hours,”

“You’re good company,” 

“Likewise,”

The stood in silence for a moment before Bellamy cleared his throat. 

“Let me walk you to your car,”

Clarke smiled thankfully and they left together. 

XXX

“So he doesn’t have a Timer?” Raven asked, her face contorting into displeasure. “Clarke, I thought that we were breaking your pattern.”

Monty rolled his eyes and Jasper just sighed, “Raven, you’re making this more than it really is. He is opposed to getting one, which sort of breaks Clarke’s pattern… sort of…” Jasper gazed off into the distance, as if contemplating exactly what he had tried to explain. 

Monty rolled his eyes again, “Just do what makes you happy, Clarke. He sounds nice,”

Raven sighed, and pulled herself up to rest her back against the arm of the couch. “Well at least he’s hot.”

“Yeah, at least,” Clarke rolled her eyes, meeting Monty’s gaze and they both smiled.

Raven pursed her lips, “Are you going to see him again?”

“Friday night, actually, we’re going to dinner.”

“Okay, that’s a good sign,” Monty said, 

“Why? I don’t get it…” Jasper said, frowning at his friend. 

“Coffee is a casual date that you can easily get out of. Nobody expects a coffee to be a long thing. So if you don’t click, you can get out of there as soon as you like,” Raven explained.

“Dinner is more of a commitment, it’s like saying ‘I like you enough to be stuck with you for three or four hours easy’” Monty finished. 

Jasper’s nose crinkled, “I knew I should have asked Jessica to just coffee,”

Clarke giggled and Raven swatted Jasper’s arm. “What’s wrong with Jessica? I thought that she was cute.”

“Looks can be deceiving. She’s cute on the outside, fucking crazy on the inside. She started banging her wrist on the table to try and get her Timer to go off, while she just stared at me. I don't think she blinked at all. I tried to avoid her gaze as much as possible but..." he shuddered, "I was more than happy to leave,”

Monty sneered and shoved his friend playfully. “You are actually such a hopeless romantic. You would’ve stuck with her if you had Timed Out,” 

“Well, I would’ve liked her if we had Timed Out. I mean, aren’t you basically ensured that you will like your soulmate?”

“Was Clarke the only one who read the brochure?” Raven laughed, “There are all sorts of ways you can first interact with your soulmate. There is no guarantee that you will like them. The Timer only tells you when they’ve met them.” 

“Sounds like a lot of work for the guarantee that its The One you're destined to be with. Weren't these things supposed to make the whole relationship thing easier?” Jasper yawned.

“It’s supposed to be worth it,” Clarke whispered, her eyes catching the flashing lines on her wrist.


	2. Chapter 2

Something that Clarke could never get used to was the dim flashing lights that broke the solid darkness of her room as she tried to sleep. The blinking lines, a dim green like a digital clock, always seemed to taunt her. Every night was the same until she would, annoyed, stuff her arm against her chest and forcefully close her eyes until she was tired enough that the flashing did not distract her. 

Every promise that the brochure had listed would play in her head as she contemplated the metal implanted in her body, but after Finn, she was having difficulty thinking of one that convinced her that the uneven nights were worth it. She could hardly think of anyone in her immediate circle that had successfully Timed Out with someone. The only happy faces that she could think about were the ones on the adverts that flashed on bus stops and billboards and in magazines. Some of her failed partners’ aside, the people she surrounded herself with were all patiently waiting. 

Perhaps Bellamy had a point. 

Her mother had found love without a Timer. Generations had somehow managed it too. The damned numbers did not mean anything in the long run. Did they?  
Clarke huffed and turned again, careful to shield her arm from her eyes. Her thoughts shifted to Bellamy again. Brown hair and brown eyes.  
Sitting up, resigning herself to less sleep than she had intended, she rubbed her eyes and picked up her phone. It read 3:52. 

More numbers. 

Clarke looked at her Timer and thought something she had not considered to think for years. She should remove it. Take the fucking piece of metal out her arm and be done with it for good. No more waiting, no more disappointments and no more sleepless nights while the numbers she so desperately waited for taunted her as lines and only lines. 

XXX

“Are you serious?” Raven snorted over her cereal before laughing. “Fucking hell, you are. What do you think it will do? Taking that out won’t cure you of your hopeless romanticism Clarke.”

Clarke rolled her eyes and leaned towards Raven, smiling euphorically. “It would just take away the pressure. The never knowing and the…” she trailed off and she sighed. “I’m not asking you to do it too; I’m just letting you know what I’m thinking about doing.”

“Is this about Bellamy?” Raven said between mouthfuls, off-handed before grinning close lipped as she chewed. 

“Why would it be about him? I mean, it’s only been- what? - maybe two months that we’ve been going out.”

“Yes, but you have a connection,” Raven giggled, “One that wasn’t predestined by quacks who could work a screwdriver.” 

“For someone who has such an opinion of the Timers, you did a good job of trying to convince me to keep mine.”

“Perhaps at heart I am a hopeless romantic too.” She sighed, “Or,” she dragged out the word, “You are slightly impulsive and you need someone to just talk with you to make sure that you don’t… fuck up whatever it is you have going.”

“Always the voice of love and support, aren’t you?” Clarke laughed and Raven shrugged. 

“That is what I’m here for; still trying to find out what your purpose in this friendship is though…” Clarke slapped Raven’s hand, smiling before she stood up and stretched her arms above her head. 

“Now that you know what I’m up to, I’ve got to get showered and ready. I’m meeting Bellamy for breakfast.”

“Oh breakfast,” Raven said, deadpan. “Voted most romantic meal of them all,”

“I like breakfast, Raven,” Clarke frowned, crossing her arms.

“I know this thing but… it’s hardly date material. Unless, you know, it’s the morning after a good dinner date.” She winked suggestively and Clarke just shook her head before laughing a little awkwardly. 

“Mind out of gutter, Rae.”

XXX

Bellamy was waiting outside her apartment block, leaning against the step rail. Seeing Bellamy made Clarke feel a little like her heart had stopped beating before it started again, fast and wild. He greeted her with a crooked smile, self-assured and charming, that Clarke returned before ducking her head and walking to his side. 

“Morning,” he said, offering her his arm which she took, appreciating his body heat in the chilled morning air. 

“Morning,” she replied, quiet and muffled against his shoulder. Clarke could hardly remember feeling this self-conscious before. Hardly in a way that was uncomfortable, Bellamy was easy to get along with, laid back and charming, but she could not help feeling like avoiding his piercing stares when he would glance at her when they walked, his gaze being a little bit more than a casual glimpse. 

They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes before she asked about the novel that he had just started a few weeks ago and he asked her about when some of her work would be displayed in the show at the end of the month. They fell into easy routine, speaking like people who had known each other longer than the two weeks that they had. Clarke could do what she could never really do with anyone else; she could ignore the thing that would pollute every other relationship she had. She could forget about the Timer, so easily that when she removed her coats and rolled up her sleeves in the heated restaurant, she paused, almost surprised when her eye caught the lines again that it was still there. That it was there at all. 

XXX

Clarke arrived home late afternoon, happy and more convinced than before that the Timer did not matter. If she could find happiness with someone, regardless of whether the machines said that she should or not, Clarke was more than happy to do so. The feeling that her life was being dictated had never really been one that she was familiar with. There was always something romantic about the Timer telling her who she should end up with. Something that she thought was rather silly in retrospect. What was more romantic than choosing someone regardless of the numbers, regardless of the science? Love wasn’t just the chemicals and hormones that much Clarke was sure of. No doubt it was something that needed to be considered, but it could not just be that. Drugging yourself into a state of euphoria was hardly romantic, and Clarke was sure that she was a hopeless romantic, just like Raven had said. Choice was better than a script and she wanted to choose who she loved, not be told. 

There would be no security blanket, nothing telling her that this was the one person that she should end up with, nothing assuring her in the hard times that the choice she made was the right one. But that was part of it, she supposed. The plastic smiles on the brochures would not be joined by hers. She would have something more organic. 

Smiling, she found the number for the Timer Corporation and made an appointment, feeling light when she was dismissed with a short ‘good bye’ and she hung up.

XXX

“- so I’m getting it removed.”

“Removed?”

“Taken out, I’m sick of it. I’m tired of flashing lines and frankly I’m tired of the idea,” Clarke shifted so that her elbow was no longer pressed against Bellamy’s side. 

“Why?”

“You were right. It almost cheapens the relationship. It’s the easy way out and,” she sighed, “I don’t know, I would rather have it the harder way than wait for someone who’s   
obviously not coming,” she waved her arm slightly. 

Bellamy swallowed and frowned slightly. “What if your soulmate is out there and they get the Timer and then you’re stuck with someone else, not as happy as you could be? It seems a little risky.”

“Why?”

Bellamy shifted, removing himself from being against Clarke and he ran his fingers through his hair. 

“What if you waste your time with someone who isn’t your soulmate? I mean, those things basically come with a guarantee of commitment and a future. What if the person you choose… just… doesn’t?”

Clarke frowned. “Okay, so, I’m in no way proposing marriage or anything, but what you are saying is that, as of this moment, you’ve just been fooling around with me? I’m just a cute distraction until my soulmate wises up and gets a fucking Timer and lets you off the hook?” her voice was rising and she could see that Bellamy was desperately searching for the words. 

“I’m not… that’s not… Clarke, I don’t mean that. But you…” he closed his eyes as he tried to collect his thoughts. “I lo-” he stopped. “I just don’t want you to settle.”

“-‘that’s no guarantee of commitment and a future’?” Clarke hissed. 

Bellamy frowned, “Clarke, let me explain what I meant. I’m sorry that-”

“Apology accepted. The door is where it’s always been so you know where it is.”

“Clarke please-”

“OUT!” 

Bellamy didn’t move. “You know I love you right?”

“Seriously?” Clarke yelled. “Now? Now that you told me that unless you have a Timer that tells you to give me the time of day, you won’t?”

“That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry. Can we forget I said anything other than something supportive?”

Clarke swallowed slowly and she ground her teeth before shaking her head. “You really are an idiot."

She took a deep breath and sat back down, gesturing for him to do the same. 

"I love you too, asshole.”

XXX

No one mentioned the Timers in Clarke’s presence, knowing that her appointment was drawing ever nearer. The closest time they could get it removed was in a month or so, and Clarke did not mention it either, but she had a feeling of complete apprehension when she saw the day drawing nearer. She was thankful that nobody tried to convince her otherwise, even after Monty met Harper and Jasper Maia. Raven had sniffed once that she and Clarke should have been soulmates and that the Universe, the Timer Corporation and everyone else involved were fuckers in need of a serious priority shift. Clarke had laughed but she could not help thinking of brown hair and brown eyes.   
She was kept occupied by preparing for the gallery showing at the backend of the month, something that she was thankful for. She would blast music until she could hardly make out the melody and slash at canvases until she could sleep without interruption from the Timer. 

XXX

The show began with short speeches from the gallery owners and then one of the featured artists said a few words before raising a glass and everyone politely clapped. There were more people than there had been at any of the previous shows that Clarke had been involved in. More people coming up to her and congratulating her with impersonal handshakes and hands tapping on her back. Her mother and Kane congratulated her too, and Raven had shrieked excitedly when she saw Clarke and hugged her tightly. It was everything that she had hoped for, and Bellamy made it even better. 

The evening was spent with Bellamy and Raven, who would try to describe the artworks to Clarke, who could not help but laugh at the ridiculous analyses that Raven gave, twirling her glass of wine, frowning and tipping her head in an educated manner. 

The evening drew to a close and Clarke remained behind a little later, watching as the gallery emptied and watching as the wait-staff began to clean.

“We should get home,” Raven yawned. “They might kick us out soon,”

“You can leave, I’m going to stay a little longer,” Clarke said, Bellamy waved at Raven as she shrugged and left, leaving the two of them looking at a strange painting of red circles and lines.

“Well done tonight, you were easily the most angsty of the artists.” Bellamy chuckled.

“Oh shut up,” Clarke laughed.

“No, I really mean it. Scary stuff. I might be afraid to be alone with you right now.” 

“I knew I was right when I met you. You are a total asshole.”

“But you love me anyway,”

“Also bigheaded,” she turned to face him, smiling.

“No doubt. How amazing must I be to get a girl like you?” he smirked.

“Haha,” Clarke rolled her eyes. 

“Are you sure though? Getting your Timer removed… it’s kind of permanent.”

Clarke frowned, looking into his eyes and smiled, assured and happy. 

“Even a Timer could not make me any surer about my choosing you.” She said.

“Thank god,” he whispered, moving his head down to kiss her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you thought. Kudos and Comments are appreciated ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I would love to hear what you think so feel free to comment and leave kudos. :)


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